Volcanic Adventures and People That Make Me Angry

We have been living in Mexico for 7 1/2 weeks.  We have been gone from our life in Katy for about 10 weeks.  Oh, how I miss it sometimes.  Sometimes I dream about our house in Katy, and remember the different things the boys learned to do there.  I think about how awesome it was to be able to annoy Deb Turner or Kristen Bradford at a moment's notice (I am a fan of popping in.)  Oh, I just pretend I am back at Houston's First Baptist sometimes, singing at the top of my lungs and seeing so many people in the world that I love. Getting to watch all the babies that I taught in Sunday school, all the babies that came through the MDO program while I directed, grow up. (I hate missing watching my friends' babies grow up!!!)

But then sometimes, I look around Mexico and I think, "I'm good. This is amazing.  Look at this world that God made that I am getting to experience right now, that the boys are getting to experience right now.  Look at all the need here, the people that have no idea that a mega-church in Houston that has thousands of members could even exist."

So far it has been difficult, but it has been good.  One thing that surprises me so far is that loving the PLACE has come so much easier than loving the people so far.  (Stay with me lest you think I just committed an irreversable error of missionary code.)  (Which I probably did, but whatevs.)

For example, the beauty of this part of Mexico is incredible.  We are in the middle of the most beautiful green mountains you have ever seen, we are in volcanic forests, tropical jungles, we are 40 minutes away from the most amazing beaches.  Seeing God revealed through this nature that we have never gotten to experience before has been amazing.  In fact, sometimes we just are completely irresponsible and decide to take time-paid-for-to-baby-sitter and instead of be productive with it, we decide to go do things like, oh, I don't know, find the top of the volcano.

(I feel like maybe our support is going drop steeply after hearing these truths)

Yes, the other day Cam and I decided like it would be a great idea to find the top of the volcano.  So off we went driving up roads in the general direction of the volcano that quickly declined to less and less functionality, just soaking in the creation around us and feeling free for the moment.  On our way up, we found an amazing lake that was all but deserted except for a few guys, who I could only surmise were some sort of grounds-keepers for the nonexistent campers.

These guys were hilarious.  Cam was asking them about what kind of animals lived around there as we were thinking of bringing the boys up to fish or camp, and this (except in Spanish) was one guy's answer:  "Oh, all kind of animals.  Mountain lions, pumas, black and white cat-dogs with weird hook-shaped noses.  Nothing harmful."  In my head I'm thinking, "Black and white cat-dog??? What the crap?  Oh, awesome, only animals that could be featured on Discovery Channel's Monster Quest show.  Oh, oh, and yes mountain lions and pumas are known for just wanting to cuddle all day...."  And then the guy goes, "Oh yeah, and then the six-foot rattle snake that I found yesterday."

Maybe we won't go camping there.

(We later figured out that the black and white cat-dog with the weird nose was an ant-eater.)

So we said goodbye to the lake's official Tourism Officer and continued heading up the road towards the top of the volcano.  The road got less and road-like and the little local indigenous looking people (whom I wanted to all smooch) got fewer and further between.  

 The tall pointy things are rock outcroppings

We passed incredible outcropping of volcanic rock and signs that said "Please take care of the pumas."  I am not freaking kidding you.  So at this point, this was my train of thought:

"Man, I hope a puma doesn't eat my face off."

"Man, I hope our car doesn't break down out here, without cell service nor a tow truck within 546 miles."

"Man, I hope we aren't accidentally wandering onto some narcos' land, never to be heard from again."

"Man, I hope the volcano doesn't erupt right now."

All good fun.  Eventually it became time to turn around because the babysitter would need to leave (or more likely we needed to quit paying a babysitter while we were off just doing shenanigans.)  So this time we didn't make it to the top of volcano, but I feel certain that a time will come when we feel the need to try again.  

A few more pics from the drive home

So, back to what I was saying about it being easier to love the place more than the people at the moment.  Like, I remember when we would go to Cuatro Cienegas with FBC Edna, I would think that I would rather have a non-anesthetized medical procedure than live there, but I LOVED the little people from the church.  They were the sweetest people, and they were so excited to have us there.  (And I was only there for like five days at a time.)  And here, that is definitely the same, I LOVE the people in the church that we are here to help, Pan de Vida.  The problem moreso lies with the clowns outside of the church (I say that in the nicest way possible.)

For instance, one day we were at Home Depot buying a few things and one of the items Cam wanted to buy was out of stock but he had the option to buy the display.  So halfway through the girl ringing him up he said, "Let me just run and make sure the display doesn't have any problems, I'll be right back."  So 45 seconds later Cameron returned to his line and the checkout girl was no where to be seen.  He looked around.  He waited.  He was confused. So he asked someone, "Do you know what happened to the girl who was checking me out?"  And the other employee said, "Yeah, she went to to go eat."  And Cameron said, "No, she was right in the middle of checking me out."  And the employee said, "Yeah, but she left to go eat."  Cameron got in the car like, "Who just LEAVES when I walk away for 45 seconds, and I say that I'll be right back, and in the middle of checkout she just DISAPPEARS???"  Well, apparently that girl.

And then yesterday, I was trying to park my whale of a vehicle in a little parking lot made for smart cars apparently and the parking lot attendant made me re-park FIVE TIMES.  FIVE TIMES.  While Graham was throwing a fit and Hudson was playing in traffic.  I was like, "Ma'am, no matter how many times you make me re-park my car, it will still be approximately 18,000 times bigger than the rest of these cars."  Finally, as she was telling me to move it again I said, "No.  Sorry.  We will be gone for 3 minutes, we are walking to that bakery, and will be right back, and then we will leave never to return."  I wanted to smack her. You know, with the love of Jesus and whatnot.  But I didn't, because I am a missionary you know.

There was also the taxi driver who parked his taxi, like, UP UNDER my monstrosity of a car and then yelled at me for not seeing it after I hit it.  (PS he was blind in one eye so....yeah....it wasn't my fault.)

So apparently lost people need Jesus or something.  I mean...I'm kinda shocked.  Not really, but kinda. So your mission, my sweet 12 friends that are reading this, is to pray for me to love people.  Because it's hard.  People got problems and sometimes I don't want to deal with them but I'm a missionary so apparently that's part of my job.  

Who knew?

Love and miss y'all and I will be back in Texas in like THREE WEEKS what what!!!!

                                                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                                                   One-half of the c-minus missionary team

P.S. Please don't read this and decide that it's time to withdraw your support from us.  If anything, decide to support us more as we are spending lots of money paying people for hitting their cars/stuff/persons.  Cam is up to four collisions, people.